IN THE NAME OF GOODLUCK JONATHAN –
Apart from the fact that the Evans Bipi five-man faction of the Rivers House of Assembly fell far below the eleven needed to form a quorum for a sitting of the House, he could not have mustered the two-thirds of assembly men needed to impeach a speaker. From the outset, his plot was a mission impossible. It was also disrespectful to the Kalabari that Bipi, hailing from Okrika, was plotting to snatch the speaker ship zoned to them. It was a plot driven by bravado and lacking in wisdom.
It became clear as soon as the pro-Amaechi assembly men including the speaker entered the assembly premises that the coup had been aborted. Bipi should have made arrangements to bar them from even showing up. Perhaps he lacked the resources to do so or the foresight. This raises the possibility that the Presidency was not involved in the plot. Simply unleashing the EFCC on the pro-Amaechi legislatures would have sent most into hiding or detention and cleared the coast for an illegal impeachment devoid of the fracas which had alerted the governor’s forces. Bipi and his co-plotters should have realized that once the pro-Amaechi lawmakers realized what was afoot, their overwhelmingly higher population and of course the governor’s intervention would bring the plot to a sudden death. This was probably why Evans Bipi went ballistic on sighting the equally chubby and rounded speaker. He must have realized that the game was up and the explosion of violence into which the gathering then descended further buttressed the futility of Evans Bipi’s plot.
As a further proof of the mastery which the pro-Amaechi forces had over the situation, the house would sit after throwing Bipi out and the videos of his impotent tantrums after being barred from re-entering the legislative chamber coupled with the video of himself addressing a near empty chamber as a wanna-be speaker have turned him into the butt of many jokes. Bringing thugs to the assembly was really contemptible. Evans Bipi has done much this week to embarrass the president, set back the PR gains of the visit of the Rivers PDP to Aso Villa and re-enforce public support for an embattled Governor Amaechi. That is hardly what the president would have liked to hear on his return from China.
It is highly improbable that the president approved this blunt instrument but his image makers would have to work round the clock to distance him from yet another fiasco. There is an urgent need for discipline in the rank and file of pro-Jonathan politicos in Rivers to stop those creating scandals in the name of the President.